The SBU reports that Viktor Medvedchuk, MP from the Opposition Platform for Life, was detained during a special operation.
Employees of the Security Service of Ukraine detained Viktor Medvedchuk, a people’s deputy from the Opposition Platform for Life, who had escaped from house arrest earlier. A photo with him appeared on the official channel of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in Telegram.
“The special operation was carried out thanks to the SBU. Well done! Details later,” the message says.
Judging by Medvedchuk’s rather shabby and emaciated appearance, he did not leave the territory of Ukraine, contrary to various speculations, and, possibly, on February 24 he was captured and held somewhere.
Viktor Vladimirovich Medvedchuk is a Ukrainian public, state and political figure. People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the IX convocation since August 29, 2019. Head of the Political Council of the Opposition Platform – For Life party. Leader of the public movement “Ukrainian Choice”.
On May 11, 2021, a treason case was initiated against Taras Kozak and Viktor Medvedchuk. In October, Medvedchuk was charged with high treason and facilitating the activities of terrorist organizations, he was suspected of implementing a “criminal scheme for the supply of coal products” from the DPR and LPR from late 2014 to early 2015 and reporting on it to the Russian authorities.
In 2022, the court extended house arrest in the case of coal supplies from Donbass to ten months, although, in accordance with the law, it cannot exceed six months. On the evening of February 21, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported that Medvedchuk had escaped from house arrest (his wife had already left the country by that time), the Pechora Court twice refused to put an electronic bracelet on him. Three days later, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. However, according to lawyer Larisa Cherednichenko, “Viktor Medvedchuk was evacuated to a safe place in Kyiv.” On February 26, the Prosecutor General’s Office asked the police to check the presence of Medvedchuk at home, where he was no longer there. On March 4, the judge of the Lychakovsky District Court of Lviv, Serhiy Girich, at a closed court session, gave permission for the detention of Viktor Medvedchuk, who was put on the wanted list on March 2. The search for the politician, according to the Ukrainian media, was carried out by a special group, which includes employees of the SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office.
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